Salamanders' C- Power Jump Decoded

Salamanders- the puny little amphibians- have mastered the art of jumping without relying on muscle power, a new study reports.

Several species of Plethodontidae family - along with Salamanders - can jump up to ten times their body length.  Graduate researcher Anthony Hessel from Northern Arizona University, armed with his high speed camera and home-made apparatus, found how these lung-less creatures achieve the gravity-defying feat.

"This particular jump is unique in the world," says Hessel. "That's why I think a lot of people are finding this very interesting."

Anthony Hessel has called the movement a "hip-twist jump" that powers a "flat catapult," explaining the complicated biomechanics in simple English.

The key to Salamanders'' gravity-defying jumps, he says, is that the legs' aren't powering the movement; rather, the creature is lifting its entire body vertically.

"It's a new way to get vertical lift for animals," Hessel says in a news release. "Something that is flat on the ground, that is not pushing directly down on the ground, can still get up in the air."

According to Hessel, the salamander bends its body in the form of a "C". The creature then rapidly pushes this C along the length of its body to power its jump.

The unique shape might look inefficient, but it produces enough force to let the creature jump.

Jumping Salamanders, Flying Snakes

This week, Virginia Tech Wake Forest University revealed the secret behind the Southeast Asian snakes' flight. According to their research, the snake flexes its ribs to flatten its body and acquire an arched, concave shape that lets it glide. They even created a 3-D model of the snake using plastic to see how it works. Their research, like Hessel's study, showed that creatures don't just rely on their muscles to power their movements.

"When you see that there's more power in the jump that can come from the muscles, then you know there are other places where you have to look, like stored elastic energy, connective tissue stretching and bones moving," Hessel says.

Last year, Cambridge University researchers had described how the common insects- juvenile Issus- use 'gears' to power their flight.

Hessel says that his research is likely to inspire engineers to replicate the mechanics used by salamanders to lift off. Researchers around the world are now studying complex biomechanics to create robots that mimic nature. Check out Five Latest Nature-Inspired Robots, here.

For the next part of the study, Hessel and his mentor, Kiisa Nishikawa, will be looking at the contribution of the protein titin in the jump of the Salamander. Titin- the largest polypeptide yet discovered - is being studied for its elasticity.

Hessel recently presented his research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology symposium.